Early Voting for primary runoff election begins today

Early Voting in the runoff for the Republican and Democratic Primary Elections began Monday, May 14, and will continue through Friday, May 18, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at the Stephens County Courthouse, 200 W. Walker St. Election Day will be Tuesday, May 22, at each precinct’s voting location.

Election Judge Beth Calvert said that by 8:30 a.m. Monday, 25 voters had cast their ballots.

Locally, the Republican Primary Runoff Election will include two offices, County Commissioner Precinct 4 and Justice of the Peace. Eric O’Dell and Jamie Whitley, who garnered 168 and 140 votes, respectively, in March’s Republican Primary Election, are vying for the county commissioner position. In March, in the Justice of the Peace race, Steve Spoon received 607 votes and Leslie Blackerby received 495 votes, with neither garnering more than 50 percent of the total votes. To read more about each of those candidates, click here for the Breckenridge Texan Candidate Profiles.

Those two races are the only ones on the local Republican Primary Runoff ballot; there are no state-wide offices in the runoff. On the Democratic Primary Runoff ballot, the only office in a runoff is for the Democratic nominee for governor. The two candidates vying for that office are Lupe Valdez and Andrew White.

Because the election is a primary runoff, there are some rules that need to be followed, in addition to the regular Texas election rules. If you voted in a party primary, you’re eligible to vote in that primary’s runoff.

However, the Texas Election Code states that if you have been affiliated with a particular party during the same voting year — by either participating in a party’s primary or convention — you are eligible to vote in only in that same party’s primary runoff election. For example, a voter who participated in the Democratic primary can only vote in the Democratic primary runoff and is not eligible to vote in the Republican primary runoff.

A voter who is not affiliated with either party – by voting in the primary or participating in one of the conventions – may vote in either party’s primary runoff.

Cutline, top photo: Election Judge Beth Calvert waits to check in voters during early voting for the primary runoff election Monday morning. Early voting will be going on from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday. Calvert said that by 8:30 a.m. Monday, 25 voters had already cast their ballots.(Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)